


a legendary christmas

by dupesoclock



Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Christmas Fluff, Gen, Other characters mentioned - Freeform, Post-Broken Ghost
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:27:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28461645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dupesoclock/pseuds/dupesoclock
Summary: “...I just wanted to do it like me and Papa used to. He would… put me on his shoulders, as a child, and we would put the star on together.”Renee hummed. “You could have asked the rest of us to help, you know.”“I know, I know… I just… well, I don’t know, it felt… pushy. We’ve all had a lot… happen… recently.” She looked down at her hands, forefingers touching in thoughts, twirling them between one another, her voice starting to crack from tears. “I-I didn’t want to bother anyone, but Octavio wanted to make up for… and so he…”--It's the holiday season, and the Apex dropship is ready to get festive, whether it wants to or not.
Relationships: Wattson | Natalie Paquette & Octane | Octavio Silva, Wattson | Natalie Paquette & Wraith | Renee Blasey
Kudos: 8





	a legendary christmas

**Author's Note:**

> this was an apex secret santa gift over on tumblr dot com for sancticarp! again, sorry for getting this to you so late >_<
> 
> this was so... so fun to write, not even going to lie to you. i don't get to write wraith that often and having her bounce off of the two younger legends? (kisses fingers) perfect.
> 
> tumblr mirror is [here](https://dupesoclock.tumblr.com/post/639054704029089792/a-legendary-christmas), please spread it if you can! here's to a great 2021! <3

“What… are you two doing?”

When Renee woke up that morning, she had expected the dropship to be as it always was - quiet, with only a few workers and one or two other legends around, where she could grab her coffee and sit at the small community island in peace, at least for an hour, before the voices in her head screamed at her that someone else was awake and beckoned her to return to her room to prepare for the rest of the day, be it training, a game, or otherwise. But no, here she stood, in the doorway to the lounge with a dirty mug in hand, staring at a strange sight indeed - Octavio, usually one of the last legends to wake up, wide awake by an old Christmas tree, with Natalie on his shoulders, a box under one arm, the unstable tower wobbling as try tried to do… something.

“ _ Bonjour _ , Renee!” The engineer spoke in a voice too cheery for this early in the morning, waving while holding an ornament between two fingers of her free hand. “Did you sleep well?”

“I… yeah, I did.” She kept an eyebrow raised, too perplexed and confused to go about washing her mug, instead placing it on the island counter and approaching the pair. “I’ll ask again, what are you doing?”

“Decorating!” Octavio chirped up, spinning on a heel and then stumbling to the side slightly, making Natalie yelp and then giggle from above him. “Nat was sad we haven’t decorated the tree yet, and she was-”

“I, well… Papa and I used to do it all the time, so-”

“So I said, ‘ey, we can do it together, and  _ fast _ ’, and then-”

“I woke him up an hour or so ago to hunt for the decorations and, well,” She held up the box and gently shook it, a chorus of tiny bells and trinkets ringing out from the cardboard. “We… barely started before-”

Renee held her hand up, already feeling the migraine starting to form in her temples for the day ahead. Looked like she was really going to need that coffee, if this is what she was dealing with. “...I got it, thanks.”

She took her place at the counter, remaining there as her pot brewed, listening to the pair of younger legends communicate between themselves to try and not fall, volume occasionally going up with a cry of surprise and/or fear followed by a round of laughter, which she found herself smiling at. They were an unlikely duo - the headstrong adrenaline junkie and the more rational scientist, but outside of a game, where Octavio’s volume and spunk got on Natalie’s bad side, they seemed to get along, to the point where even someone as emotionally clueless as him had clued into the fact that the holidays were still harsh for a girl who had just lost her father. Renee smiled to herself listening to them, pouring the coffee into her cup, not bothering with creamer as she brought the drink to her lips-

-and jumped at the loud screech and crash from behind. The skirmisher spun around, witnessing the mess in front of her - a knocked over Christmas tree, ornaments strewn across the floor, Natalie laid across Octavio, the former rubbing her head and the other face down, seeming knocked out cold.

Renee put her mug on the side, running over to the pair. “Nat! Nat, are you OK?”

“Ah,  _ oui _ , I had a, ah, strangely soft landing…”

“...Right. Strange. Need a hand?”

“Please.”

She held her hand out for the girl, who graciously took it with a sheepish look, pulling herself to her feet, tripping over the body of her friend as she tried to step forward with a quiet gasp, before stepping over him.

“Sorry-”

“You’re fine. So long as you’re not hurt.”

“Right, right.” Natalie looked down, gently kicking Octavio with the side of her foot, and frowning at the lack of response. “...Do you think he’ll be mad at me?”

“Him? No. You can’t mess him up more than he already has.”

She giggled a little, covering her mouth as she looked back up to meet Renee’s soft, concerned gaze, her face falling a little. “...I just wanted to do it like me and Papa used to. He would… put me on his shoulders, as a child, and we would put the star on together.”

Renee hummed. “You could have asked the rest of us to help, you know.”

“I know, I know… I just… well, I don’t know, it felt… pushy. We’ve all had a lot… happen… recently.” She looked down at her hands, forefingers touching in thoughts, twirling them between one another, her voice starting to crack from tears. “I-I didn’t want to bother anyone, but Octavio wanted to make up for… and so he…”

Ah, right. She’d almost forgot that he always tried to have something to gain from every interaction, shame on her for thinking he had emotional intelligence. She’d have to pull him up on this later. But for now, she kept her focus on the engineer, quietly formulating a plan without words. “Do you want a drink?”

Natalie paused, looking up, her mouth hanging open in her rambles before she closed it with a gentle exhale. “... _ Oui _ ,  _ s'il vous plaît _ _. _ ”

The two shared hot drinks in a relative quiet after that, Renee with the rest of her coffee now grown cold, and Natalie with sweetened milk tea, until the runner woke up from his unprompted nap, more than ready to carry on before the engineer dragged him to the medbay for his busted nose. That left Renee to herself, to clean up and prepare for a plan that she felt compelled to go through with. After all, they were a family now, weren’t they?

When Natalie returned to the main room on her way to her own, she was quickly scooped up by Makoa, who placed her on his shoulders as a much sturdier base. Dr. Somer’s handed her that same box of ornaments she’d had that morning, some repaired (with Ramya taking very loud credit for that) and most replaced (courtesy of Elliott and Pathfinder). The young engineer’s face lit up like Christmas lights, with Loba and Ajay helping her hang everything in the box with a keen eye on each of them, before Octavio snatched the lights from Anita to wrap around the tree. And that only left the star, which Renee handed to Natalie, the decoration resembling a certain hackers drone to an uncanny degree. Natalie stared at it with a slight frown, before reaching her arms above her head to place it on her spire, a grin spreading across her freckled face as she did. And once the lights were flicked on, there was a loud cheer and an excited group hug, the family of legends finding comfort in one another before they had a chance to kill each other again the next day.

But there wasn’t any hard feelings there. Not really, or at least, not in that regard. Because they were family, not bound by blood but by the steel of their guns, and by the friendships they had forged.


End file.
